Cardiac Injury and Anaemia after Surgery for Fractured Neck of Femur
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Cardiac Injury and Anaemia Following Surgery for Fractured Neck of Femur: An Observational Study
IRAS ID
210075
Contact name
Michael Gillies
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Edinburgh
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 0 months, 0 days
Research summary
Many frail and elderly patients undergo surgery for hip fracture every year. Many of these patients have other health problems including heart disease and anaemia (“low blood count") either from chronic illness, bleeding at the time of injury or during subsequent surgery. Many patients will develop complications.
Doctors looking after these patients commonly prescribe a blood transfusion around the time of surgery, which may increase the amount of oxygen the blood can carry and therefore prevent heart attacks. It may also help patients get out of bed more quickly after surgery.
However, blood transfusions can have side effects such as causing heart failure or increasing infections after surgery. These can delay patient recovery too. Although some research has been done in this area, anaesthetists and surgeons are still unsure of when to prescribe blood transfusions to these patients. In particular, we are not sure about how low the blood count should be before a blood transfusion is ordered. Current guidelines suggest that prescribing at a lower haemoglobin count (70 g/L) is better, but there is research which suggests that this level is too low if the patient has a history of heart disease.
We wish to measure the incidence of anaemia, transfusion, and also heart attacks, kidney damage and other complications which could be affected by transfusion in patients undergoing surgery for hip fracture. All patients that present to our hospital with a broken hip will be able to take part in this study. We will measure heart damage with a blood test that is very sensitive and we will measure kidney damage with a standard blood test and a new urine test. We will also collect data on other complications. This will provide important information to design a future study looking at the correct transfusion level in the patients.REC name
Scotland A: Adults with Incapacity only
REC reference
16/SS/0139
Date of REC Opinion
14 Oct 2016
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion